How Katie Holmes and Jamie Foxx kept their romance undercover

At last, our thirst for proof of Katie Holmes and Jamie Foxx’s relationship has been satiated. No longer will we have to accept blurry cellphone shots and word of mouth, because there are now official, crystal clear, hand-in-hand photos of the two strolling down the beach in Malibu — probably the most obvious way for two celebs to announce that they are, indeed, a thing. (Well, other than wearing your beloved’s name on a T-shirt at her annual Hamptons Fourth of July party.)

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Jamie Foxx and Katie Holmes are busted. (Photo: BACKGRID)

Undercover has been the name of the game for Foxx, 49, and Holmes, 38, ever since the two got tongues wagging in August 2013, when they attended a Hamptons party and reportedly got flirty on the dance floor with one another. It was dismissed as nonsense — including a vehement denial from Foxx — until the rumors started kicking into overdrive that fall, when In Touch reported that a driver who thought he was picking up Foxx from his hotel was surprised to see Holmes enter the limo. According to the magazine, “A hotel employee confirmed that Katie had stayed at the hotel with Jamie and that she was taking his car. So the driver drove her home to her Chelsea apartment.”

And then came the bombshell, in the form of a photo of the two in a recording studio, holding hands and indeed looking like a couple. Us Weekly shared the photo in March 2015. From there, the two led tongue-waggers in a skilled game of cat and mouse, keeping the are-they-or-aren’t-they discussion alive for years.

The two became adept at scheduling their arrivals and departures in the same city, and same location, so as to not attract attention. They even had special escape routes to duck nosy neighbors, with reports claiming Holmes had a back way out of her New York apartment that fed into Whole Foods. Holmes and Foxx reportedly had a lot of catered dinners at their respective homes so they wouldn’t be papped. They also became masters of disguise. In September 2015, Us Weekly reported that Holmes wore a wig and hat in order to meet Foxx at his hotel.

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Katie Holmes and Jamie Foxx first got people talking when they were thisclose at a benefit in the Hamptons in August 2013. (Photo: Shahar Azran/WireImage)

But they weren’t always expert at keeping their relationship secret. Three months later, in December 2015, TMZ reported that Holmes was at Foxx’s birthday party, and there were blurry photos taken of the two in the same locale at the same time, although photos of them looking coupled-up never surfaced.

By the summer of 2016, people started figuring out their coordinated arrival and departure schedule. While Holmes was shooting The Kennedys: Decline and Fall in Toronto, Foxx was spotted around Yorkville and at the airport, leading most to assume he was merely stopping over en route to the Formula One Grand Prix in Montreal. But they were caught having dinner in Yorkville a month later, prompting Holmes to leave out one exit with her assistant and Foxx to leave from another.

Of course, who could forget when former Real Housewives of Atlanta star Claudia Jordan, who is friends with Foxx, announced in an interview that the two were indeed together, and that, “He is very happy with her. I love that he seems very happy.” Not long after, Jordan backtracked, saying she misspoke and has never seen the two together.

And though Foxx and Holmes jetted off to a getaway in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, last December for Holmes’ birthday, during which the two reportedly holed up in a suite and didn’t leave, something seemed to shift this year, leading to more and more public scenes. For example, when they spent New Year’s at the Soho Beach House in Miami, where they were spotted “holding hands while walking near the pool” and declared “very serious” by a source.

There was also that time in April when a sneaky snapper caught them out for dinner in New York, as they dined at a members-only club and held hands while walking by the pool (these two love their pool walking, apparently).

And then there was their romantic Parisian getaway in May. As reported by E!, “Jamie wrapped filming on Robin Hood and Katie flew in to Paris to meet him for a few days,” said a source. “Tom Cruise was filming Mission: Impossible 6 only a few blocks away, but Katie and Jamie stayed inside their hotel … and didn’t leave.”

When problems with their jet delayed their plans to fly home, “Jamie had a big smile on his face as they returned to their hotel and snuck in through a private entrance,” the source continued. “They were very discreet and made sure to always enter and exit the hotel and the car separately.”

Still, signs were starting to show that the two were ready to make their love public. As Us Weekly reported in April, following their New York dinner, Holmes, “used to be super worried about public attention,” adding that their meetings were elaborately planned. Said a source, “To make it impossible to get photo evidence that they are together, they traveled in cars with tinted windows and took secret back elevators. They had it down to a science.”

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Katie Holmes and Jamie Foxx go back as far as 2006 when they were both on the sidelines of a Redskins-Vikings game. She was Tom Cruise’s plus-one — and married him that year. Jamie and Tom co-starred in 2004’s Collateral. (Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images)

But according to reports, Holmes was tired of playing the game, and may have been sending a subtle message that she was done with it in August, when she was photographed all over New York wearing a pair of sunglasses from Prive Revaux, Foxx’s affordable eyewear brand. This all leads us to the official confirmation photos that surfaced over the long Labor Day weekend, showing the two looking carefree and, yep, in love.

The decision to take their relationship public might not be as spontaneous as it appears. Rumor has it that one of the stipulations from Holmes’s divorce from Tom Cruise was that she couldn’t be seen with another man for five years, and if you’ve done your gossip math, those five years expired this summer.

Whatever the reason, we’re happy to see these lovebirds officially fly.